Chinese smartphone maker Huawei catching up on Samsung, Apple: study
Five years of continual growth at Huawei closes the gap between the Chinese manufacturer and market leaders, while establishing it as an internationally recognised and accepted brand
Chinese smartphone maker Huawei managed to gain ground on Samsung and Apple in terms of market share last year, following the problems encountered by the two sector giants, according to the Gartner consultancy group.
Over the year as a whole, the Chinese maker saw its sales leap by 26.7 per cent, while the South Korean and US rivals both saw their sales decline by 4.3 per cent, Gartner says in a study. Its findings echo that of research company IDC, which pointed out this month that the iPhone is losing ground in the mainland smartphone market to domestic brands such as Oppo, Huawei and Vivo.
As result, Huawei was able to increase its share of the smartphone sector to 8.9 per cent in 2016 from 7.3 per cent a year earlier, while Samsung saw its market share shrink by two full percentage points to 20.5 per cent and Apple’s contracted to 14.4 per cent from 15.9 per cent.
“Chinese makers succeeded in winning market share over last year and Huawei now seems to be the main rival to the two giants, even if the gap remains large,” says Gartner analyst Annette Zimmermann.
